Food, Inc.: Medel to Monsanto- the Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest: A Review

Food, Inc.: Medel to Monsanto- the Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest by Peter Pringle is a book about genetically modified foods (GMOs) and how they have changed the world's agricultural systems. The book has no relation to the 2008 film Food Inc. (at least as far as I can find), but does discuss many of the same concepts. This book was published in 2003, so it is a bit outdated, but I found that it gave an excellent summary of the history and development of GMOs. At the start of the book, the author claims to present an unbiased account of GMOs, and while he does do a fairly good job of presenting both the pros and the cons, his arguments still seemed to lie heavily on the "against" side.
The book starts out discussing the beginnings of genetic modification, including the technological challenges and the motivation behind this engineering. It also delves into the regulations behind GMOS (which are very minimal mind you) and how they fall into a category called GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe), essentially because the GMOs look similar to their non-GMO counterparts. A big part of the book is discussing the myriads of patents that have been placed on GMOs. (Funny how they are similar enough to non-GMO food to not be required to be tested for safety, but different enough to put a patent on it, isn't it?). Pringle also talks about several of the independent safety studies that were conducted, and the crazy politics behind them. He also discussed contamination of GMO seeds into the worldwide food supply, which may have potentially harmful effects on insects, wildlife, plants and us!
Pringle leaves us with the thought that GMOs are probably not going to cause the destruction of the world, like many anti-biotech groups seem to plead, but they are also probably not the innocent bystanders that the seed corporations claim them to be. The fact that this book is several years old becomes evident at the end, when Pringle claims that because people are concerned with the safety of GMOs and don't want to be fed them, they will soon loose their place in the market and will soon be a thing of the past. However, what we have seen in the past few years has proven otherwise: most people are ignorant about GMOs, more and more acres are planted with them each year, and companies like Monsanto still hold a large share of the seed marketplace. Individual states (like Oregon) have put measures on the ballot to try and eliminate sales of GMOs, but have failed due to huge financing against the measures by pro-GMO corporations like Monsanto.
It is interesting to see how the future really will pan out for GMOs, but, at this rate, it seems like they have found their place amongst an innocently unaware public. Pin It Now!